Queen of Cords: Alice Lawrence on 55 Years of Corded Breeds

Queen of Cords: Alice Lawrence on 55 Years of Corded Breeds

Host Laura Reeves is joined by Alice Lawrence, breeder-owner-handler of Komondorok, Puli and Havanese, to discuss her beloved corded breeds. Lawrence, along with her husband Steve, first owned an Old English Sheepdog.

“We were brushing our arms off,” she said. “In 1972, we acquired our first Komondor and there's no looking back. And no, we never had another Old English Sheepdog. We love the breed. But we would never go back to brushing a dog like an Old English Sheepdog when you can have a dog of equivalent size or somewhat larger and be able to cord it. While cording a coat can seem daunting, Lawrence said, “Well, compared to brushing, it is (much easier), but you have to understand what a cord is, why a coat cords, and how to maintain the cord. It's a different discipline.

We think it's much easier than brushing, and it's a lifetime of being able to have your dog in a proper coat rather than brushing the dog, showing it and shaving it down because you can't keep up with brushing it.”

A “curated mat”

“We think of cords as being a protection, a protection from predators. And the coat is very important to the environment and to the work that they do. Komondor are protectors of the flock. They do guard against such things as wolves. A fully-corded Komondor, not necessarily the length of the coat, but the density of the coat, will prevent the wolf from biting the dog. “The other thing is that Komondor and Puli in their native Hungary deal with very, very difficult weather conditions, and the coat protects them both from the cold as well as from the heat. It's an insulator.

So it's really a very natural coat for the dogs to have for their entire life. “To cord any breed you really need a coat that is a double texture, an undercoat and an outer coat, and the undercoat is a softer coat, it's more cottony. The outer coat is wavier and it takes the wave of the outer coat to wind its way around the softer undercoat to create the cord. “That's what's creating this, call it a mat. It's a mat and it's an elongated mat.

The thickness of the mat, sometimes it's natural as to whether or not a dog has a thick cord or a thinner cord, but for the most part it's how you divide these mats that occur that will determine the thickness of the cord.”